Lost Hearts
by EvanLolicia
Summary: Akari Hitsugaya lived in a small town, alone, in a one room apartment because her brother Toshiro had dissappeared. Her life was normal...until she met Ichigo Kurosaki, the fantasy boy from her favorite manga!


So this is my Bleach fanfic about Bleach! (I do not own, nor claim to own anything from Bleach) Enjoy! :D **********************************************

Akari Hitsugaya breathed a heavy sigh and walked towards the old school building. This was it. This was all she had to look forward to nearly every day for the next eight months. She looked at her phone. A text message from her fan fiction account grazed across the screen. Her favorite author, AnimeGirl11, had just posted a new chapter of her story about Ichigo Kurosaki; Akari's all time favorite character from any anime.

She began walking up the sidewalk towards the red brick building and carefully read the chapter. Ichigo Kurosaki. The bright orange haired, zanpakuto-wielding soul reaper boy of her dreams. Akari laughed at herself. She was such a nerd for anime. This time, he was arguing with Kon about whether Orihime and Ulquiorra would make a good couple.

"Emo boy?" Ichigo laughed.

You're just upset thinking of her being with anyone other than you," Kon snapped back, "where's Rukia?" He added.

Akari became so intoxicated by the fic that she practically ran into someone once she was inside the school halls. "Oh, sorry." She said, not looking up from her phone. "I wasn't watching where I was going." She finally finished reading about Ichigo and Kon's battle to the death…or tear, and was about to open her locker when she realized the person she'd run into was still standing there.

"Look, I know I ran into you, but I apologized. Do you have a prob- Oh. My. Gawd. Ichigo!"

Standing right there, looking down at her was Ichigo Kurosaki himself. Squee! He gave her an awkward little smile, then began walking down the hallway.

"Whoaaa. Wait. What the hell are you doing? You're not real!" Akari protested and grabbed onto his Shihakushō with her bright orange nails, meekly attempting to hold him still. Instead, he ended up easily sliding her across the hallway, walking determinedly toward the back exit of the school.

Ichigo kept walking, Akari on his back-literally- trying to stop him. He halted once outside the school building. "Do you mind letting go?" He asked sharply.

"Oh…uh. Sorry." She let go of Ichigo. "So where are you going?" Akari followed behind Ichigo as he kept walking. He turned and glanced her over. Akari suddenly became self-conscious. She straightened her shirt and fluffed her hair a bit.

Ichigo gave her a questioning look. "To find my, uh, friend?"

"Rukia," Akari knowingly stated.

"You know her?" Ichigo asked.

"Yeah. You're Ichigo Kurosaki, the black haired soul reaper's Rukia Kuschiki, and the teddy bear you're holding is Kon, the soul you use when being a soul reaper." Akari batted her hand at the little bear. "Which, I'm guessing that's where Kon is right now. In your gigai."

"How do you- wait. Never mind. Look, I've got nothing wrong with the whole stalker thing… 'Aggressive friend making', right?" he looked down. "But uh, could you just leave me the hell alone?" Ichigo began quickly striding away.

"Stop, please!" Akari screamed at his back. Her face was flushed, and tears were starting to stream down her cheeks. It didn't help much that the sky had darkened, the wind had picked up, and rain was flying sideways into her face.

_Damn_. Ichigo thought. The girl was crying. "Uh…are you all right?" He asked awkwardly, standing in front of her, making little motions with his arms.

"I'm…I'm fine." Akari wiped her face, unknowingly smearing eyeliner across her forehead. "Just go, you damn anime character."

"Huh?" Ichigo was confused.

"Uh, I asked you to leave?"

"No, not that. What did you call me?" a frown crossed Ichigo's face.

"An ani-"She was interrupted by Ichigo's rabbit shaped pager Rukia had bought him from Urahara. She had the weirdest obsession with bunnies…

"I've got to go. Uh, do you know how to get here?" Ichigo showed Akari the pager.

"Yeah" Akari pointed in the direction of the area where the hollow was. "…wait!" But Ichigo had already pulled out his zanpakto and disappeared.

"That's my house." Akari stated to herself, then took off running.

The whole world seemed a bit of a blur as Akari frantically ran in the direction of her home, not paying any attention at all to the cars narrowly missing her and the people screaming at her to get out of the middle of the street.

_Shit. Shit, shit, shit._ Akari knew what happened when a hollow came around. It must've sensed a great spirit energy…but around her home? That didn't make sense at all. She lived alone with her brother, Toshiro. And he had been missing for months.

Hell, hollows didn't even exist. Neither did Ichigo, Kon, Rukia, or the pager Ichigo was holding. _I must be going insane._

Akari rounded a corner and stopped dead in the middle of her street. A high-pitched, ghostly growl shook the ground around her. She fell down and looked up in horror at the beastly creature in front of her. Its face was white and it had a long, black tail.

The hollow looked straight at Akari and let out another roar. Its tail whipped around and before she could even stand, the razor sharp, spiked rod shot straight through her. Akari fell to her knees. She saw red. Through her blurred vision, she saw Ichigo sprinting over to her side, trying to wake her up, even though the hollow was still after them. Then everything just seemed to turn black.

Ichigo's mind blanked as Akari's body slumped into his arms. He should've sensed it…he should've known that she was the intense spiritual pressure the hollow was after. How could he not have understood? The girl had practically climbed on top of him earlier!

Solemnly, he gently placed her body down and turned to the hollow. "Zangetsu!" He called on his zanpakuto. The hollow roared and charged straight at him. It took one quick swipe of Zangetsu to separate the hollow's mask, and within a few seconds, it had disintegrated into a hell butterfly and fluttered away.

Akari's eyes fluttered open. The hollow was disintegrating quickly. Ichigo had defeated it and sent it to the soul society. She then looked at Ichigo. He was looking down at her…dead…body. She was dead? Akari looked down at herself, separate from her body. A red reiatsu hung directly above her, another reiatsu of the same color was the same above Ichigo, and a chain was connected to a large hole in the middle of her collarbone. She felt a strange, empty feeling. Not pain, not numbness. Akari was mostly confused. What was happening? Was she becoming a hollow? She watched, horrified, as the chain began to tear itself apart, rapidly eating up the chain, becoming shorter and shorter.

Ichigo looked at the girl's soul, who was staring at her body, tears falling down her face. He was upset, of course. But even more confused than upset. The girl…a red reiatsu was above her. Only a soul reaper would have a red reiatsu, a human's was white. But the girl was obviously not a soul reaper. She would've known what to do with the hollow had she been a soul reaper. The girl's soul looked at him, her transparent eyes were puffy from tears. The chain was almost gone. There was nothing Ichigo could do but wait. He let out a meek sob.

"Kurosaki Kun!"

"Uh…Inoue." Ichigo quickly wiped his face and took a deep breath, trying to maintain a serious, emotionless face.

"What…what happened?" Orihime asked, running up to Akari's corpse and immediately began to attempt to heal her unmoving body.

"The girl…the hollow was after her. I um, didn't get here fast enough." Ichigo tried to look calm, collected. "But can you save her?" He spoke the words too fast and his voice faltered and cracked. He looked down, humiliated. His fault…it was all his fault.

"I can try…" Orihime muttered "but her wounds…they're bad."

Every time. Every single damn time he was too late. He lost. He failed. The girl…he didn't even know her. Yet he felt so horrible…He had to at least try to do something! He couldn't just stand there and watch her die!

Ichigo walked over and faced the girl's soul. "Now listen up, and listen good. You see that chain? And how it's getting smaller? You're close to becoming a hollow. And if that happens, well, things would be unfortunate."

The girl sniffled but looked up at Ichigo.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Akari. Akari Hitsugaya."

Ichigo drew in a sharp breath. Hitsugaya? As in Toshiro Hitsugaya, captain of the 10th squad? Hitsugaya was not a common name. It was practically unheard of. But Toshiro had been in the soul society for hundreds of years, and this girl, she was young. It had to be just a coincidence. "Okay, Akari Hitsugaya. I need you to think. Focus all your spirit energy. I know you've got some; otherwise the hollow wouldn't have gone after you. Just…focus."

Akari nodded and shut her eyes. She thought of all the Bleach manga she'd seen, all the anime episodes. When Ichigo had to regain his soul reaper powers, he'd had to do it. She could do it then as well.

The chain was almost at its end. Ichigo watched as the girl began screaming, frightened and in pain. Had this been how bad it was when he almost became a hollow, back in Urahara's training room, years ago? The girl's soul was shuddering, spasming; her legs seemed to be giving out on her. She yelled out again. But Ichigo had had his body when he had to retrieve his powers. His body wasn't dead. There was nothing else, nothing else he could do.

Orihime had stopped attempting to heal Akari's body. The girl was dead. She couldn't reject the wounds. Instead, she was staring in confusion at the girl's soul. Was she…becoming a hollow?

"Orihime, step back. Now." Ichigo demanded, standing up and turning his face towards her.

"Ichi-"

Ichigo looked at Akari's detached soul. The hole was there. He unsheathed Zangetsu and held it, ready to finish it. _If only I had saved her._ Ichigo clenched his jaw and watched as the girl's body was surrounded by a cloud of dust and spirit energy.

********** So yeah, that's it for the first chapter. Please review/ add to favorites/alerts! :)


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